Summer Heat
by For Eden
Summary: Strange things were known to fester in heat. Do/Wa


Summer Heat

In the summer of his last year in high school, Watanuki became a frequent patient in a run down clinic near Yuuko's shop. Hospitals were more damage than a cure for someone like Watanuki, Yuuko had remarked to him before cautioning him to be weary of the summer heat. Strange things were known to fester in temperature.

The first time he woke up in the cramped clinic room, Yuuko was sitting in a chair besides him, sipping tea and conversing with the doctor. Watanuki felt a sharp pain run up from the right side of his leg all the way up to his brain, tingling in sensation.

His bed was placed right next to the window. The curtains exposed, the sunlight hitting him, making his skin feel clammy and the sheets sticking onto him.

"They say it's going to be a long summer," Yuuko remarked casually. The doctor looked at his leg and told him and told him about how many stitches he had to sew up and how to take care of it.

All Watanuki could feel was the summer heat beating down onto him.

* * *

Some time between his third and sixth visit to the clinic, Yuuko stopped being the person that picked him up. Rather, in the place where Yuuko once sat, there was Doumeki. The first time Watanuki woke up to seeing Doumeki, the other boy was reading a book. Watanuki wasn't able to make out the title without his glasses.

"You should wait." Doumeki stated when he noticed Watanuki was awake.

"What?" Watanuki asked, his fingers fumbling onto the nightstand to his right for his glasses, his body sticky with sweat. Watanuki wondered why they couldn't have at least closed the curtains if their AC was broken.

"You should wait for me."

"You have your club."

"That's why you should wait."

* * *

Watanuki stared at the ceiling and at the strange blue stain in the sea of cream. He always wondered how that stain got there, especially since it was shaped like a sea horse. The curtains were, naturally, wide open and the sun as bright and warm as ever. Then there was Doumeki, sitting with the book Watanuki still hadn't managed to decipher the title of. The kanji was blurred and difficult to make out with his poor eyesight.

"You see," Watanuki began, already knowing what Doumeki was going to say. Watanuki threw off the uncomfortable sheets that clung onto the top of his body, his side aching at his every movement. Still the heat was much more unbearable than the aches of his body.

"I don't see how it'd make a difference." Watanuki admitted. "Walking home with you that is."

Watanuki still didn't want to admit the positive effect that Doumeki has on him. He was too stubborn to accept that Doumeki was special (to him). Watanuki reached out for the water pitcher. Before he his hand reached, Doumeki grabbed the pitcher from his fingertips.

"It will."

"Did Yuuko tell you that?" Watanuki questioned. It was going to be another day of missing work. This meant that once he was up on his feet again, he'd have even more work for him to do to make up for his absent days.

"No." Doumeki stated, pouring the water into a cup for Watanuki and handing it to him. "I know it."

"Oh. I see." Watanuki frowned at how lukewarm the water was.

* * *

"This is a change," Watanuki said, sitting in the vinyl chair wishing he had a book to read. He would one day have to ask Doumeki to let him borrow the book he had always been reading.

Doumeki was sitting on the bed with his arm extended. The doctor was disinfecting the cut he had on his arm. Watanuki was even considerate enough to close the curtains though it really made no difference. Outside the rain was pouring down onto the streets.

"It's different," Doumeki remarked.

The doctor finished bandaging up Doumeki's arm and told him that he'd be as good as new in a few days. He left the both of them behind in the cramped room that Watanuki used to frequent.

Was it different? Watanuki looked down to his hands and noticed how the scars were starting to disappear. He also felt the way the summer heat had faded away to a gentle breeze.

"It is." Watanuki conceded.

Doumeki smiled.

* * *

_Written awhile back for MK for her birthday. :)_


End file.
